Author Archives: Dana Batho

You’ve likely seen the rise in sarcastic and sweary memes, t-shirts, mugs, and even stitching patterns in the past few years. Although many disagree with swearing for personal or religious reasons, there is an upsurgence in people feeling freer to … Read More

I love helping people learn to stitch, it’s such a relaxing hobby, and playing with lots of gorgeous embroidery floss colours and fabrics is just so much fun. Recently I’ve had a lot of people asking how to complete a … Read More

Are you someone who adores Valentine’s Day? The chocolates, the pink fluffy hearts decorating all the shops, do they make you swoon and look forward to showering your loved ones with affection and special surprises? Or are you someone who’s … Read More

Happy New Year! 2019 is going to be amazing, and to kick it off I’m happy to announce that Issue 6 (the “Mix Tape Vol 1” issue) of XStitch Magazine is now available! One of my cross stitch designs is … Read More

If you’ve heard all about the new DMC Étoile embroidery threads but haven’t had a chance to pick some up yet, this quick review should give you a good idea whether they’ll be a yay or a nay for you. … Read More

If you’ve ever wondered when to use a stabilizer for cross stitch or embroidery projects, this tutorial will help you learn which of the myriad of options is best for your project. Sulky makes a wide range of stabilizers, and … Read More

One of the best things about being a stitcher is getting to experiment with so many amazing threads, fabrics, and tools. This tutorial is demonstrating some of Sulky’s threads, particularly those that are great for cross stitch and embroidery. In … Read More

Sometimes when you write delicate text onto your fabric from an embroidery pattern, your lines may look “wobbly”, especially if the letters are quite small and delicate (like a single line of backstitch). So, to ensure your text stitches up … Read More

For some embroidery or cross stitch patterns, it’s normal to want to change some colours (say of a girl’s hair, or a dress, etc). Changing colours is not as simple as it can seem at first, so below is a … Read More

The leaf stitch is such a pretty hand embroidery stitch, it can be used in all sorts of ways. Similar to the fishbone stitch, the leaf stitch is a great textural stitch (which is obviously perfect for leaves). It looks … Read More

Satin stitch is a lovely embroidery stitch, but many people find it intimidating. We’re so used to seeing “perfect” satin stitch as done with machine embroidery on badges, labels, baseball hats, etc, so it’s easy to forget the beauty that … Read More

One of the prettiest embroidery stitches is the chain stitch. There are a lot of variations to it (like a square chain, twisted chain, cable chain, etc), but in essence the chain stitch is a very simple graphic stitch. Obviously … Read More

Embroidering letters and text are a great way to make a personalized gift, and the stem stitch and split stitch are two embroidery stitches that are perfect for this. The stem stitch (as its name indicates) is perfect for flower … Read More

I was lucky enough to be contacted by the publisher of the newest cross stitch guide to hit the market, The Mr X Stitch Guide to Cross Stitch, and asked to give my honest feedback. I was thrilled to be … Read More

If you’ve ever wondered how to stitch beautiful embroidered roses, they’re not as tricky as you might think! One really simple stitch that can add a lot of beauty and dimension to your embroidery is called the woven wheel stitch. … Read More